Brain Fitness

Sweet Chestnut tree--Kew Gardens

The purpose of this essay is to encourage you to be uncomfortable.  For a worthy cause.

Did you enjoy your celebration of Thanksgiving this year?  Family and friends around the table, eating some of the best-tasting food of the year.  For me, the highlight was my daughter's sweet potato casserole and an in-law's applesauce cake.  Mmmmm...good.  Oh, and my mom's recipe I made for cranberry chutney.  It's mainly cranberries, oranges and sugar.  The best.  Planning to make a second batch today, just for me, with a few blueberries tossed in for fun.  What, add blueberries to cranberry chutney???

Why not?  Try a twist, a teensy turn in the road, change it up a little.  That's what makes things interesting, right?  Or, maybe not.  Some folks get a thrill from trying new things and some folks get a little anxious and hunker down to keep everything the same, on an even keel, predictable and comfortable.  

Do you have a guest at your holiday dinners who insists on scraping the plates and loading the dishwasher?  How about one who clears the table and sets the dirty plates on the side of the sink you always use for dessert prep?  Maybe a person who sees the coffee pot getting low and asks you where you keep the coffee 'cause he'll make a new pot.  Or perhaps your daughter pipes up after the meal and suggests you all go for a walk around the neighborhood before dessert?  What's your reaction when these unexpected things happen?

The book Keep Sharp, by Sanjay Gupta, was recommended to me and I reluctantly read it.  So glad I did.  This neurosurgeon recommends several strategies for keeping and improving a fit mind--exercise, healthy eating, addressing depression and mental health concerns and maintaining frequent social interactions.  By engaging in physical and cognitive activities that stimulate and most importantly, challenge, our bodies and minds we may "grow" new brain pathways and stave off or delay the onset of dementia, if we are on that path.  (I'm sure Dr. Gupta would shudder at my simplistic summary of the book, sorry.)

Being able to adapt to new activities and social interactions is a key component to brain fitness.  Being able to step out of preferred, comfortable patterns or habits and try new things or considering new ideas.  Being flexible, considering pros and cons of novel opportunities, checking things out and assessing how you like or don't like something, being willing to listen to another person's ideas and participating in their preferred activities (walking dogs at the shelter, taking a "how to identify trees" class at the botanical garden, going to a college basketball game).  The brain is challenged, new pathways may form and growth happens.

And, if you're a super control freak but want to keep mentally fit, just dip your toes in the "new stuff" experiment.  Instead of locking in to a full day trip with a new friend, join her in an activity that will finish by noon.  If your spouse wants to see Godzilla vs. Aliens then opt for the matinee (so you can calm down by bedtime) and bring along your earplugs.  

And for that friend who always wants to load your dishwasher, with your best china?  Smile and say, "Thanks."  Remember the last few minutes of The Twilight Zone?  The control of your TV set was always returned to you.  You can carefully extract your mom's china and silver plate from the dishwasher and lovingly wash it by hand, after all those wonderful, dear people have gone home.

Postscript:  The photo of the Sweet Chestnut tree was taken in 2019, outside London, at Kew Gardens.  I traveled there from Harrow, taking trains to the borough of Richmond upon Thames, and walking from the station to the gardens.  It was about 100 degrees that day so our walking tour of the gardens switched from admiring the breathtaking flower beds--in full sun--to scurrying from the shade of one tree to another.  Our fantastic guide told us that the tree was planted in the early 1700's.  What an amazing day, a challenge to body and mind and worth every minute.